PRAISE IS WHAT THEY DO.

The world-renowned Shekinah Glory Ministry is not your average choir. In fact, technically, they aren’t a choir at all. They are a dynamic retinue of psalmists, minstrels, karar [Hebrew for whirler], encouragers and banner-wavers who have become the paradigm for urban praise and worship music in this young millennium.

Over the last decade, they have taken their place alongside Fred Hammond and Israel & New Breed as the trendsetters in contemporary praise and worship music.

It all started when Apostle H. Daniel Wilson went away on a 40 day sabbatical in 1999. While in prayer, he says that God gave him the vision to launch a unique praise and worship team. The Lord told him to call it Shekinah Glory Ministry.

When Apostle Wilson returned to his Chicago-area church, Valley Kingdom Ministries International (VKMI), he preached on themes of praise and worship for an entire year.

Then he gave his minister of music, Rose Harper, the charge to pull the praise and worship team together. After Shekinah Glory Ministry (SGM) was assembled and put in place as the official praise and worship team for VKMI, it was decided that SGM would make a live recording.

Enter Elder William Murphy III. The gifted psalmist was invited to minister at the church one time and one of the songs he sang was called “Praise is What I Do.” He had returned back to his home the next day when he received a call from the church. They wanted Elder Murphy to perform the song on their upcoming debut CD.

“It was a song birthed out of a crisis in my life,” Murphy once said. “At the time I had just written the song, I had just experienced a divorce. I felt like a dead man walking. I was certain that my days in ministry were over. I knew that my ministry had just come to a screeching halt. I felt that no one would invite me to minister and I would lose my anointing. That’s why it’s so important to have that personal relationship with God. I told God that there’s no way I’m walking away, because I love God too much but there’s no way I felt I could get on the microphone to sing or preach again. So, I started investigating what else could I do. I only had a year of college so I wasn’t ready to run a corporation, I couldn’t start a business because I didn’t have any money at the time.

I just asked the Lord, what can I do, what exactly do I do? Then, I asked Him what exactly could I do to support my two sons? That’s when those words were birthed out of my spirit. Praise is what I do. That’s the one thing I could do. I messed up just about everything else but I could still praise you, through the good or the bad. That song was born at the most difficult time in my life. Often, people come up to me and tell me that this song has gotten them through some of the most difficult periods in their life, too. And that to me was such a blessing to hear. So, God is just so awesome and so unbelievable to take a tragedy and flip it to make the experience such a blessing to so many people.”

Prior to the live recording, Apostle Wilson had a foot washing service where he anointed SGM and washed the feet of the members in the same way that Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. The double CD Praise is What I Do was reviewed in the prestigious Village Voice newspaper where the reporter wrote, “What you hear on these two CDs is everything that transpired in the studio, without editing or overdubs.”

It was Elder Murphy’s heartfelt “Praise is What I Do” that resonated with the church community and gospel radio in a phenomenal fashion. Since the album was released in 2000, that song remained on Top Ten radio playlists for four years. The Praise is What I Do CD spent 67 weeks on Billboard’s Top Gospel Albums chart where it peaked at #5 and was eventually certified gold.

By the time of their next recording, Phil Tarver had come in as the worship leader for SGM. Their 2004 CD Shekinah Glory Ministry Live proved to be their biggest yet. It peaked at #3 on the Billboard Top Gospel Albums chart and spent an astounding 101 weeks on the survey. That project featured Tarver’s warm baritone on the Latin-flavored “Arise/Shine” and the reverential ballad “How Deeply I Need You.” However, it was Valencia Lacy’s reading of the dramatic ballad “Yes” that received the strongest radio airplay. It reached #21 on Billboard’s Hot Gospel songs chart but received consistent year-round airplay rotation with impact far beyond the story those numbers tell.

SGM continued to touch hearts and souls with the 2007 Jesus CD release. The title song was birthed during a Bible study by LaTosca House who finished honing the song with noted producer Daniel Weatherspoon. She also led the powerful paean that became SGM’s first #1 Billboard Hot Gospel Songs chart hit. The CD rose to #5 on the Top Gospel Albums chart and spent 53 weeks on the survey.

As SGM tours the world in venues ranging from Sao Paulo Brazil’s Pacembe Soccer Stadium to New York’s Madison Square Garden, they are showing the world the majesty and beauty in simple yet authentic praise and worship. After all, Praise is What They Do.

Share this:

1 Comments

Words cannot explain the joy that Shekinah Glory fills my heart with…..I have recently joined the church choir and desire to do a solo either for Just for Me or Yes. INSPIRATIONAL INDEED! Even on your worst day, if you listen to Shekinah Glory you will definitely be revived and come back even stronger than you were before. This Ministry is definitely worthy to be praised!